What's for dinner? ~ May, 2013

Crybaby wrote:

I bought an edamame plant a couple weeks ago at the garden store. Even with all the darn rain we've been having, the plant looks pretty good. I have no idea how the plant will do but I love edamame so I had to have it.

Imelda HL wrote:
Beth.. you got a good deal for your coconut oil... can you use it for cooking too? my neighbor uses it too, for everything, even for tending her dog's wound

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Tina made a tomato sauce with veal and pork cubes / sausage / and meatballs.

Gave a bunch to son and DIL.

It was good! Nice and thick sauce. She made angel hair with it. Didn't like the brand of angel hair. Tasted Flat. Tina salted the boiling water too!
Oh! I didn't push it away! I ate two small dishes. Had my hot peppers with it too!

NO BREAD! Grrrrr! Trying the weight loss.

bethk wrote:

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Tina made a tomato sauce with veal and pork cubes / sausage / and meatballs.

Gave a bunch to son and DIL.

It was good! Nice and thick sauce. She made angel hair with it. Didn't like the brand of angel hair. Tasted Flat. Tina salted the boiling water too!
Oh! I didn't push it away! I ate two small dishes. Had my hot peppers with it too!

NO BREAD! Grrrrr! Trying the weight loss.

Boy, Jimmy, I know what you mean about pasta not having any flavor. I'm usually pretty happy with the Barilla brand - they do a whole grain style that I like a lot. But I think the DeCecco (sp?) brand is the one I like the best for it's flavor. They have an angel hair that's in nests, which is nice for portion control...2 is enough for a nice serving of pasta.

And if you're trying to cut back (good job on no bread, by the way!) then you should at least have a lot of flavor in what you do eat. At least that's MY thoughts. I guess that's why I don't deny myself anything, I just try to avoid or "wait until tomorrow" to skip some of the stuff I would normally eat with mindless abandon. When I have carbs now I'm totally aware of each bite and I savor it.

I went out to eat with my friends the other night and Lyn and I split a small piece of bread. I took the effort to cut my little piece of bread (a fabulous rosemary foccacia!) into 3 little bite size pieces and then made an effort to bite each cut piece into 2 bites. I even put the small bit back on the plate as I concentrated on the flavor of that tiny bit I was chewing. And you know what? I was satisfied. I didn't walk away from that table wishing I had actually eaten something I love and then going home and binging on frozen bread crusts from the loaf of bread in the freezer!

I got the name of that (Never Buy it Again ) macaroni's. It is Rienzi Brand. Tasteless.Maybe because it is all semolina flour.
We like Barilla or Ronzoni... My Favorite, is San Giorgio.

Years ago growing up...there was a Brand Called Conte Luna macaroni's. The Box had a picture of the Man in The Moon on it. I havn't seen it in years.
The Anna Brand is good too!

I had to laugh about your portioning that slice of bread, and eating it slowly.
Just like Lucy Ricky, Fred, and Ethel, when they were stranded in the log cabin all snowed in. Lucy had a snadwich in her back pack, and she was forced to share with the others. I roared laughing when she was eating her share nibbling at it like a mouse, and then wetting her finger to press on the crumbs, and the finger licking. Haaaaaaaaa....

I love your Looky Looky Shrimp platter. Me Too! I don't want them winking at me as I eat them up! hahaha

bethk wrote:Hey, Jimmy, when you're done doing the electrical at your house will you stop by here and add an outlet by my water heater so I can move a refrigerator out in the garage? I didn't realize there wasn't an outlet there and it's the only place I have room for that extra refrigerator. It's only about 115° up in the attic. lol

The last time I made succotash (traditionally for us with lima beans & corn) I used the frozen shelled edamame instead of the baby lima beans. It was really good and I liked the idea it was probably a bit more nutritious than the limas (although, honestly, limas are a favorite of Dane and mine....unlike 98.7% of the general population!).

But I just couldn't bring myself to ingesting the head, etc. I ended up cleaning 'em all before I ate. PITA to remove the shells when grilled....next time it's the steamer for sure! lol

Imelda HL wrote:Beth.. your shrimps look so good... I like shrimps with skin and head on, but I rarely bought them here.. my DH is so spoiled, does not like to peel the skins, moreover the heads

for today's dinner, I'm planning to cook my Italian style beef sausage, any idea what to do with it? the easy one

NormM wrote:Funny you should mention cold asparagus. I just finished copying a recipe from the newspaper for cold marinated asparagus and was thinking about making it tonight.

This is it

Marinated Asparagus (They said it was Asian but I doubt it, other than having some Asian ingredients.)

1 lb. asparagus spears
2 T Water
1/4 C. seasoned rice vinegar
2 T. chopped fresh ginger
1tsp. dark sesame oil
2 tsp. bresh squeezed lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon, divided

Remove tough ends from asparagus
Place stalks in glass pie plate with water, cover with paper towel and nuke 3 minutes.
Plunge asparagus into cold water.

Reservine 1/2 of the lemon zest, place remaining ingredients in zip top bag along with asparagus and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Drain & discard marinate, serve cold, garnish with remaining lemon zest.

Crybaby wrote:
I didn't know anyone ate the head -- we keep them for stock but we don't eat them either!

I used to have Brian grill me some shrimp on the grill when he was cooking something else so I could add them to a brown bag salad to take to work -- adding the protein helped make me feel full. They were indeed a PITA to peel but I did discover something. When I chilled them overnight prior to peeling, the peel came off easily. Go figure!

bethk wrote:

Imelda HL wrote:Beth.. your shrimps look so good... I like shrimps with skin and head on, but I rarely bought them here.. my DH is so spoiled, does not like to peel the skins, moreover the heads

for today's dinner, I'm planning to cook my Italian style beef sausage, any idea what to do with it? the easy one

Imelda, you would have loved those shrimps....the flavor of cooking them in the shells & heads was so intense. This is the first really fresh ones I've seen in the local market ~ and being on sale was a no-brainer of what I was going to have for supper.

Tonight I'm going to reheat my Faux Jambalaya with some thawed frozen shrimp I had originally planned to have last night.

I'm not sure what I'd do with the sausage....if it's in links I would probably brown it and then add a marinara sauce and serve the links simmered in marinara with a small portion of angel hair pasta along side. I think I have a pic of some chicken/spinach/mozarella sausage I did that with...let me go look if I can find it so you can see what I'm talking about:

that is a good idea too, but it's too late I still did not know what to make when I put my sausage (links) in my pan, then I open my pantry and saw 2 cans of chili beans, so I decided to use it.. I ran out of veggies, so we went to the store to get some celery, green bellpepper and more.. I told my DH that we were going to eat chili beans and he said, that's good.. farting time

I'll post my pic later.. my camera is in the kitchen counter and I'm too lazy and tired to walk those few steps to get it

bethk wrote:Barb ~ we must be on a mental telepathy thing or something. I had a "Greek Salad" with grilled chicken (MINUS the feta) for my lunch today. It was wonderful. We went to a restaurant that serves Greek and Italian menu...strange, but works just fine.

**************

I was going to reheat this Faux Jambalaya last night and then changed my mind at the last minute. Turns out it was too much so I just ended up picking out the chicken, sausage and shrimp and tossing 75% of everything else. I thought I really, REALLY wanted the rice but just a few bites was enough to get rid of my craving. It really surprises me that I don't crave as much of the carbs as I thought I would....just like Barb and my DD assured me. I'm still having a little (like tonight's rice) but I usually just take a couple bites and then I'm good to go.

My body hasn't reacted as I would have hoped (sometimes you weigh what you weigh and that's the "weigh" it is...) but I FEEL so much better without all the high carbs. A half piece of bread is enough to satisfy now ~ and in the past I would have eaten 3 pieces and dipped each one in that dish of seasoned evoo. And like tonight, most generally I would have eaten every grain of rice in my dish.....and just a few small bites was all I needed.

aah.. this is my kind of meal too bad we don't have icon for "high five"